1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a sausage link forming machine capable of forming sausage links from an elongated sausage casing and severing the links at individual link connections or at predetermined link connections and wherein the machine is compact, easy to assemble and repair, provides adjustments to handle sausage casings of different diameters, and wherein the sausage links are formed with end link twisted connections which substantially conceals the foodstuff at the end of the sausage link.
2. Description of Prior Art
Various machines have heretofore been provided for forming and handling sausage links. However, many of these machines have proven unreliable and result in numeral machine stoppages because the sausage casing bursts when mishandled by the machine. Furthermore, sausage links formed by many of these machines are often not appealing to the eye as the foodstuff protrudes from the partly closed ends of the sausage link casing because these ends are not properly formed. Still further disadvantages of known sausage link forming machines is that these machines are difficult to clean when a sausage casing bursts rendering the machine non-hygienic, they are difficult and time consuming to repair often shutting the link former for several hours. This becomes a very costly and time consuming process. A still further disadvantage of known sausage link forming machines is that they are very slow and require personnel to monitor the operation of the machine, to inspect each of the sausage links to make sure that they are well formed and to manually group the links in individual packages.
Most sausage link forming machines can only handle sausage casings of predetermined diameter and are not adaptable to other casing sizes. Consequently, additional machines must be provided to handle different size of sausage casings.
There is also a need to provide a very compact sausage link forming machine which does not occupy much space and which also provides easy visual inspection during the operation of the machine to identify problem areas. There is also the need to provide a sausage link forming machine which is reliable while at the same time capable of operating at high speeds to form at least 600 links of sausages per minute. A further need is to provide sausage links wherein the ends of the sausage are twisted to prevent the foodstuff from exiting from the ends of the sausage links and further to provide a machine which can handle sausage casings formed of synthetic or natural skin.
It is known from International Publication No. WO 94/23584, filed on Apr. 15, 1994, to mount pincer assemblies between rotating discs and to operate the pincer assemblies by cams whereby to form twisted link connections in a sausage casing. While the casing is pinched, the sausage link being formed is twisted. It is also known from European Patent Application 0 069 544 to provide a severing means to cut the chain of sausages into separate links. In document WO 94/23584, there is also shown roller assemblies which pinch the sausage casing to impart a twisting action to the sausage links. However, it is pointed out that this apparatus is extremely difficult to assemble and repair due to the fact that they are assembled in component parts on the machine. When a malfunction occurs it is necessary to idle the machine for long periods of time to effectuate repairs. Thus, there is the need to provide for grasping head assemblies which are easy to remove from the machine and quickly replaced by another assembly with ease and within a relatively short time period. There is also a need to provide for ease of adjustment of such assemblies to adapt a casings of different diameters.
It is therefore a feature of the present invention to provide a sausage link forming machine which substantially overcomes all of the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art and provides the desired needs.
According to a broad aspect, the present invention provides a sausage link forming machine which comprises a rotating frame secured on a drivable axle. The frame has opposed parallel discs. Control cam means is secured to the axle intermediate the discs. A plurality of sausage grasping head assemblies are secured between the discs and equidistantly spaced apart along a circular path. A link forming pincer mechanism is secured between each of the grasping head assemblies. The grasping head assemblies have rotatable support rollers which are displaceable towards one another form a sausage casing receiving position to a sausage casing engaging position. First cam follower means is associated with each of the grasping head assemblies and engages a first cam portion of the control cam means to displace the support rollers to position same to the casing receiving position and the casing engaging position. Drive means is associated with each of the head assemblies to impart axial rotation to the support rollers. The link forming pincer mechanism has a pair of pivoting form members which define therebetween a restricted throat area to grasp and compress a portion of the elongated sausage casing to form a sausage link twisted connection between adjacent ones of the grasping head assemblies in a portion of the rotating frame. The pivoting fork members support the elongated sausage casing at the receiving section of the rotating frame. At least predetermined ones of the pivoting fork members have severing means to cut the sausage casing at the twisted link connection and at a discharge section of the rotating frame. Second cam follower means is associated with each link forming pincer mechanism and engages a second cam portion to cause the fork members to pivot to and away from one another. The forming machine is characterized in that the grasping head assemblies are formed by opposed sets of rotatable support rollers, with each set comprising a detachable support block detachably connected in transverse axial alignment to a respective one of the opposed parallel discs. At least part of the drive means is secured to the detachable support block. Each of the support blocks are each secured to a diametrically extending open-ended block connecting slot formed in a peripheral end portion of the opposed parallel discs.